BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Birmingham chef Chris Hastings won't be opening the restaurant in the Westin Hotel under construction at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, but the BJCC hopes to name an operator within the next few months.

"Even back early on, when the idea of Chris opening a restaurant in the Westin first kind of surfaced, we were already talking to a number of different operators, as well," Tad Snider, the BJCC's executive director, said Tuesday.

"We do have a couple that we are in somewhat advanced discussions with now," Snider added. "We just don't have anything finalized yet, but hope to in the next two months or so."

Hastings, the chef and owner of Hot and Hot Fish Club on Birmingham's Southside, said Tuesday that he was not ready to take on the financial risk of opening a high-end, high-volume restaurant at the hotel.

"I couldn't find a way, when I reviewed the numbers, to make sense of any kind of financial commitment," Hastings said. "It seemed to be fraught with too much risk relative to volume."

The BJCC and New York-based Starwood Hotels, which will manage the hotel, are requiring potential operators to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week to accommodate the hotel's guests.

Hastings said the dinner business is key to making such a restaurant profitable, and he does not think there are enough conventions and events at the BJCC to make it work for him.

"Downtown at night has proven to be a challenge for restaurants," he said. "While the lunch trade and the after-hours bar trade have been reasonable, the dinner trade is very spotty downtown."

The $50-million, 300-room hotel broke ground in January and is expected to be completed in October 2012.

In their initial talks with Hastings back in January, BJCC officials liked the idea of having a local owner-operator to make the restaurant distinctly Birmingham.

"The idea of trying to do something local kind of emerged with Chris," Snider said.

While that's not likely to happen now, it still will be a "signature restaurant," Snider added.

"The groups that we are in discussions with now aren't currently in Birmingham, but offer something unique," he said. "They are not chain-type restaurants. They are unique in their market."